The evergreen car is hardly a new concept, especially in Mexico. The VW Beetle was built there for some 40 years. After some 20 years in production, the Nissan Tsuru has a way to go to break the VW’s long run. Will it last another 20?

The Tsuru’s appeal is understandable. Priced at 118,000 pesos ($9,113), it offers hard-to-beat value with four doors, a 105 hp, 1.6-liter engine and a reputation for being mighty tough– so much so that Tsurus are most often used as taxis here. Mexico’s Crown Vic?

The Tsuru costs only slightly more than the smallest cars sold, (i.e., the Hyundai I110/Atos), all of which have smaller engines. The Tsuru’s combination of price, performance and proven durability continues to be compelling, and it continues to be in the top ten best sellers. But for how long Nissan plans to keep building it is anyone’s guess.

21 Comments

Loads of these in the Philippines, too, also serving as taxis. Nissan ships CKD to the Philippines for assembly. They are tough, easy to service units. I always liked the utility of these cars as they were obviously designed for easy service. A bit on the crude side but a Crescent wrench won’t strip a thing on one of these workhorses!

Are they still producing the 2 door coupe version? The 4 doors look all bland and boring, but the coupe version looks alot like the E30 BMW IMHO. Hence why I bought a 2 door last week! Don’t forget the good gas mileage, they get about 40 on they highway, and 30-35 around town.

I think it’s cool that this is still being produced. This must be Mexico’s version of the Buick Century/Olds Cutlass Ciera that we made here forever — just a generic sedan that was good enough and priced right.

I was in Cancun in 90 or so, and we (Bob pictured, not me) rented one. It had a manual trans,
I learned 2 things 1) You can shift w/o using the clutch
2) Mexican Policia take bribes readily (15 mph speed limit near all the major hotels)

Not legally as they don’t meet current crash standards. You *could* do what they did with Mexican VWs, and transfer the VIN from one sold in the US from 1991-1994 onto a new chassis. Not *strictly* legal, but unlikely to cause you any issues.

Then again, since they don’t make the 2-doors, there’s not much point, since really the only reason someone would do this would be to resurrect a rusty SE-R.

Actually the last Mexican Darts were K-cars. Usually 5 speed, and without any emissions junk- so they probably ran well too. I’d guess they were quite fast. If I could find one that hadn’t been used up, I’d have it.

You still see some K-cars every now and then. The first bodystyle with the square front end was introduced with the 2.2 turbo, with a carburetor and without any emission equipment, called Magnum. In 1992 goverment required all cars to have a catalytic converter, so all Chryslers had a MPFI ( instead of the TBI) system. The Turbo K-cars (Magnum and Lebaron/New Yorker) were replaced by the Shadow GTS, Spirit RT and the Phantom RT (Lebaron Coupe) with the 2.2 and 2.5 intercooled turbo, if you really wanted a fast Chrysler you could opt for the Turbo III installed either in the Spirit or the Phantom with manual transmission only, you could spot these cars by the DOHC decals on the doors and the 16″ lace spoke rims painted in dark grey, they only came in red, black and white, and a full spec, even climate control.

Chrysler did not have a good reliability record back then because many of this technology was unknown for the curbside mechanic in Mexico. Ironically you see them a lot more often than the midsize competition from Ford and GM from that era (Tempo, Eurosport Ciera, Thunderbird SC) and are very well taken care by enthusiast.

I drove Chryslers for a while, i liked them, but the chassis felt a little unrefined, they are sturdy though. Fuel economy was not great, and although bulletproof, i never liked the 3 speed automatic, and manual shifter were notchy. I also HATE the sound of the starter of all these K-cars based platforms.

Very nice. I never really liked these in the day, as the ones at my high school were the 2 doors with vinyl seat ‘teen stripper’ (oh that has another meaning) models. Always in white with black bumpers. They just screamed cheap.

However, now, I can see the appeal. The early ’90s may have been the zenith of car manufacturing- the rust bug had been tamed, engines and electrics had been made reliable, and the planned obsolescence/decontenting/failure-engineering had yet to get its teeth in.

I always had a thing about the ‘basic car’ used by developing economies. This fits the same mould chosen by the Russians with the Lada- a box on wheels, beefed up where necessary and easy to repair. The size is alright as well. Since moving to Europe, I realised that you don’t need a 18 foot long car. The Tsuru is the right size for a family. Sure not everyone can stretch out with cooled cup holders and vibro-massage seats, but if you were trading in a Beetle, it would have been a real step up- a door for all, the ability to cruise comfortably at 70 on toll roads, and a greater chance of surviving a collision.

The other oddity is that I doubt this cost any more to build than a Beetle, and probably less. Once costs are amortized, a complex labour intensive car like a Beetle (complex as in bodyshell) probably cost more to build than one of these using the robots cast off from Japan (or Smyrna?)

Case in point is the $9995 Versa. Same cost to build, and I’d choose a Tsuru over the Versa any day, just on looks alone. Who decided that modern small cars have to be ugly and lumpy?

I used to drive a ’96 Sentra before I went to uni, and I can say that it was a real step down from these, and you could see just how much was taken out. The doors were clangier, the interior was cheaper, and that’s not even mentioning the rear axle.

I’ve had nearly 4 weeks in Mexico City in the past month and a half. My spanish is severely lacking, but I have attempted to engage a few taxi drivers about their Sentra – I mean, Tsurus. Every single one I was in (probably 6 or 7) had the speedo/odo disconnected somewhere in the 197k (that’s kilometers) range. All had struts that were completely shot. However the engines ran well and the trans (some with 4 speed, some with 5) appeared to shift without incident.

Now I know my former ’94 Sentra (that became a ‘93.5 after it was rear ended and the back half of a ’93 was grafted on) probably is still driving, 11 years later, even though in the hands of my sister it experienced that wreck, broadsided by 2 New Orleans garbage trucks, rearranged the suspension a few time (Nissan mechanic told my father “I ain’t never seen front suspension as bent up as this one”), and 2 or 3 floods.

These B13’s are nice and basic, but I would not want to be T-Boned or hit head on by a drunk in one. Sure fan-boys want to go thru twisties fast in car with no safety equipment, but drunk/bad/overzealous drivers are unpredictable.

Every generation thinks that any car from their teenage years were ‘perfect’ and ‘the best ever’. See above. they are far out dated now, and many B13’s in Rust Belt got tin worm. “Driving fast” is not the be all end all for automotive technology.

I heard some time ago that the growing popularity of this car among taxi operators was one of the reasons why VW stopped producing the Beetle in Mexico, as they had passed a law ruling out 2-door cars for that purpose. Those familiar with Mexico can probably confirm that. Anyway, I always loved the B13, particularly the GTS and the other more upmarket variants, but I purchased a B14 because I got a better deal on it.